We've all heard the story of how Scientology was destroyed by David Miscavige and those around him. Some of us witnessed it. And we all have the same questions about how it happened.

Some things are fairly obvious, or should be. The SO#1 line was our direct line to LRH. If anything was amiss, we could have put in on LRH's lines, and one way or another, it would have come to his attention. This line had provided the impetus for LRH to correct various things over the years.

(It could be argued that Ron's link with the SO#1 line was tenuous in the first place. Ron didn't have time to read and answer and sign all the hundreds or thousands of letters which came addressed to him every day. He had an elite crew of Sea Org personnel whose job it was to read these letters and answer them as he would have. Signing was handled by a specialized machine which can duplicate signatures repetitively. But it's certain that there were pluspoint/outpoint counts on those letters, and certain repeated issues would have been given special attention.)

In addition, it should be noted that for the last few years of his life, Ron was secured in a location off the beaten path and known to only a few. Getting SO#1 material to and from Ron would have been a colossal feat. And even then, such materials could have been selectively edited to omit items which demanded Ron's attention.

So it should be clear that this line was cut. Miscavige or his agents cut this line, much as you would if you were attempting a coup, and such a line could have blown your plans.

In the years leading up to Ron's death, his location was away from the main events, and known by only a few. Why?

The more power Miscavige obtained, the more damage he was able to do on a broader scale. For example, Ron's philosophy on refunds was to handle them quickly, legally, and retire the matter quietly. No such luck with Miscavige. Instead of handling refunds in a workmanlike manner, he chose to drag them out and litigate them.

Similarly, Miscavige tampered with the Tech, something he was completely unqualified to do. The result was bad Tech results and numerous lawsuits. Some were quite high profile.

All these lawsuits had something in common with all previous lawsuits- the attempt to bring LRH out into the open, where he could be captured, made to testify, and accused as an unindicted co-conspirator. In fact, some will remember the infamous "Nibs" lawsuit, where Ron's son from his first marriage attempted to wrest control of the Church from Ron. This failed, due to some fancy legal footwork.

But many of these lawsuits also had the characteristic that they attempted to cast Ron as the ultimate "authority" of the Church. This would make him ultimately responsible for anything which went wrong. And under Miscavige, a lot went wrong.

As a result of all of this, for Ron's safety and that of the Church, he was forced into hiding. Some will also remember when communications from Ron transitioned from Ron as Founder/Commodore to Ron the advisor. Everything from that point on was "advice".

So in another way, Ron was effectively isolated from the Church and the subject he founded.

And we all believe we know how broad and deep Ron's abilities were. This showed up from time to time in apocryphal stories from the days when he was touring the world lecturing and instructing. We assume that all the auditing he devised for us, he also went through. So his case state would have been pretty advanced. And it's fair to say he was no slouch even before he developed Dianetics and Scientology. No one had a greater understanding of the state of OT than LRH. He'd done years of research on the matter.

Moreover many apocryphal stories indicate LRH's ability to obnose an abundance of things about a person, just by being in their presence and communicating with them.

LRH never met David Miscavige, so he couldn't have directly observed what was going on with him. But as a master of obnosis, he could have and would have seen various outpoints on his lines as a result of Miscavige's activities. Or at least from somebody's activities. These could have been evaluated and resolved.

And we all assume that, had LRH seen these things, seen the outpoints, he would have done something about them. But what if that's not true?

This planet is a motley collection of criminals, geniuses and artists, from various points in this galaxy and others. And religion has a bad time of it here. Buddhism today bears only a passing resemblence to what Gautama Siddhartha taught. Jesus Christ was a jewish reformer whose activities ultimately provoked the Jews to persuade the Romans to crucify him, which they reluctantly did. Jesus was supposed to be the predicted prophet and savior of the Jews, and they rejected him. Under the stewardship of the Catholic church, Christianity has involved itself in a great many areas where it had no business. The various factions of Islam have been at each other's throats almost since the time of Mohammed.

Not to mention the whole track dramatizations which affect the behavior of all those who live here.

And here Ron comes with a new religion. But this one has enemies the likes of which have never been seen before. International bankers, media companies and newspapers, the medical profession, the psychiatric profession, and anyone else whose intentions toward mankind are less than noble.

And in the 1960s Ron proved that an OT working alone could not by himself make any effective headway. In fact, he'd made this point in early lectures: an organized meat body society will always defeat a collection of go-it-alone free thetans.

Were the cards stacked against Ron from the outset? Yes indeed. And he told us repeatedly that we had precious little time to make a change here. He never exactly described the threat, but you can use your imagination.

Ron could and would have seen all the threats coming. He was aware of the sabotage, the infiltrations and the rest of the internal factors which sought to bring down the Church.

And it's fair to say that one way or another, he knew or at least sensed the presence and malevolence of David Miscavige.

But what if, for reasons known only to LRH, he chose not to stand in Miscavige's way, but instead let nature (or this planet's version of it) take its course? Earth was the origin, but it was also a test case. Other planets, with different governments or more homogenous populations, might play out differently. But Earth was a minefield from the start.

Scientology on Earth was always on shaky ground. Few organizations were real havens for their staff and public. Most struggled. Management was conducted poorly. Ethics and justice were widely abused. Ron did what he could to prop up orgs and management, but even the best technology, unused or used incorrectly is about equivalent to sabotage.

Ron was a great student of history, and the history of religion on this planet only goes in one direction.

Once the Tech (and Admin and Ethics) were complete (and they were, long before LRH died), there was little left to do for Ron. He worked sporadically on technical films and returned to fiction writing, things he could do from his hiding places. But at that point, the future of Scientology was in our hands. Ron made this clear. It was up to us to ensure Scientology expanded and continued the task of clearing and deaberrating this planet.

From an ethics perspective, Ron wrote up his hat (hundreds of volumes and thousands of lectures), and moved off the lines. Power/Power Change. I remember when the "Watchdog Committee" was originally announced, a group of executives to watch over the various sectors of Scientology. I was puzzled as to the reason for this group, until it dawned on me that Ron was actually turning over part of his hat to these people. And at that point, I'm sure Ron simply watched to see what would happen. This would be completely in line with Ron's condition. After moving off the line, the future for Dianetics and Scientology were not his concern. He had done the job of providing for future Church leadership (that is, he replaced himself). At that point they were in charge, and the future was their concern.

I think Ron knew full well what was going on, and he left it up to us to handle whatever occurred. Certainly we had the Tech to do so. But we failed as a group.

I think this explanation is superior to lingering questions like, "How could Ron let this happen?" and "What happened to Ron? Why did he desert us?".

Of course, with this explanation, there will be those who feel that LRH betrayed us by letting Miscavige and others sabotage everything LRH built. I think that's unfair. Miscavige got his way, not because LRH was passive about what was occurring, but because we were. Many of us were in positions lofty enough to challenge Miscavige. And even those a little further down the org board, banding together, could have stopped the carnage.

So in summary, I've come to the conclusion that Ron did in fact know some or all of what was going on, and chose to leave it to us to do something about it. Four factors influenced Ron's viewpoint and the ultimate outcome. First, the history of this planet and the history of religion on this planet. Second, the whole track dramatizations this planet's population is prone to (OT III). Third, the composition of this planet's population, such as it is (criminals, geniuses and artists). And fourth, the array of enemies who wished nothing but destruction for Scientology and its followers.

Ethically, Ron did the right thing. He followed the conditions formulas and did exactly what they demanded. Earth was an oddball "Target One" for Scientology. Subsequent targets won't play out the same way, because they don't have the same governments, the same populations. But the experience of Earth, the prison planet, in relation to Scientology, would be instructive at the very least. What more could have/should have been done to secure Scientology on a prison planet? And how would this experience reflect on efforts to secure targets two, three and etc.?

Only Ron, wherever he his, can answer these questions. For our part, it's worth analyzing what went wrong and how we can prevent such events in the future. I won't go into that here, but I can say with confidence that it involves increased vigilance, discipline and dedication on our part.